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Adventures in Angkor – Siem Reap

I missed last week’s installment of Adventures at Angkor… oops! This last installment isn’t so much on Angkor, but on the modern town of Siem Reap, which is where you’d want to go if you want to visit the temples. It’s a small, bustling town – bustling from the massive tourist boom it has experienced since the late 1990s, and even in the off-peak tourist season the town still hums with excitement.

This section of town you are seeing in these pictures is called the Old Town, the heart of Siem Reap. It still contains many of the shops and watering holes that draw in the tourist dollars. Food and drink here are relatively cheap – although not cheap compared to the native Cambodians, who I suspect less than half of what a tourist would normally pay on a menu.

Souvenir shops like these are ubiquitous in the old market, a square block of shops selling everything the tourist needs by way of a souvenir – bags, hats, small statues, t-shirts, fridge magnets, postcards, etc. A tourist trap, to be sure. So make sure to haggle in these types of shops!